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Although a large body of literature recognises the impact of parent-teacher relationships on infant everyday experiences, less is known about the emotional experience and associated expectations of the adults themselves during earliest transitions. In the context of a multi-site international investigation across five countries -Brazil, Finland, Scotland, New Zealand, and the United States -the present paper seeks to address this gap. This research examines teacher and parent interviews to reveal expectations prior to and after the transition to ECEC, highlighting the associated emotions that arise during this process. Findings show that, irrespective of whether expectations are met, parents universally express insecurities and fears in relation to the transition. Parents are aware of the impact that the various aspects of the ECEC setting have on their child, and acknowledge difficulty in relinquishing control of the care of their child. Despite these concerns, parents consistently articulate their strong trust in the institution and the professional expertise of the staff. Correspondingly, teachers are keenly aware of the importance of their role in supporting families, and hold certain expectations for how the transition experience will play out accordingly. Regardless of country of context, the study shows that clear communication surrounding both centre and parental expectations establishes high levels of trust and ameliorates anxiety. Teacher-parent dialogues concerning routines, preferences, and anticipations are seen as pivotal in supporting a positive transition for all.

This article and the four videos linked to this article are a result of the earliest experiences in establishing an international research collaboration among seven countries in the Project Social and emotional experiences in transition through the early years. We draw attention to the complex issues surrounding the many processes, beliefs and attitudes about infants in research that permeated our processes of gaining ethical approval for the international study and which posed many challenges for our project. Through a process of reflective analysis, we have identified a range of ethical tensions and issues which the different countries involved in this international study faced in gaining ethical approval from their institutional ethical committees for their collaborative participation. More specifically, we identify one persistent tension concerning the use of video data in research on young children. This tension is a result of diverse interpretations of international ethical codes, alongside local restrictions and ethics review processes. It illuminates various positions concerning the protection of infants' privacy versus the benefits of using non-anonymous video data both in joint analysis, and even further, in open publishing. Such positions have been widely debated in research with adults, whereupon many of the ethically challenging questions have been dealt with through processes of acquiring informed consents from the participants. In case of infants, however, the role and nature of informed consents is different from research with adults, as is the role of the adult in using infant 'data' in research. For most cases, informed consents are acquired from the parents or the legal guardians that are not necessarily present on a day-to-day basis in the actual data collection process in early years educational settings. The question of children's own assents for study is widely debated and this is no less so in the project we present in this paper. On the basis of the experiences in this international collaboration, and the challenges and tensions identified in between diverse cultural context and ethical review boards and practices, we propose that more dialogue in relation to research ethics on video research is needed within the diverse research communities and (Continued on next page)

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In Finland, the policies and practices in early childhood education and care (ECEC) have been characterized by a division into practices and forms of care for children under and over 3 years old. This study analyses the construction of space in the national and local level curricula for the very youngest children. These documents both present 'child's best interests' as age-related, and generalize and distinguish the needs and abilities of the 'younger' and the 'older' children. At the local level, the space offered for the youngest children is linked to the emphasis on the daycare group as a community of social actors; the youngest ones are seen as inexperienced newcomers, faced with adaptation to the group and its rules. Keywordscultural construction of childhood, curriculum, early childhood education and care, space/place, toddlers As public spaces for education and care, daycare centres are constructed through particular political and cultural understandings of the child and 'good' childhood (Brembeck et al., 2004; James and James, 2008; Olwig and Gulløv, 2003;Wagner and Einarsdottir, 2008). In early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Finland, developmental psychology has provided a strong theoretical basis for developing the practice. The focus on children's well-being from the developmental perspective is in line with the generational ordering of relations that set adults and children in different positions in society (Alanen, 2001; see also Närvänen and Näsman, 2007). Furthermore, in modern societies the childhood institutions, such as daycare and school, are largely based on the division of children into different groups by age. Chronological age, however, is not the only criterion; children need to fulfil various preconditions related to age-appropriate skills and competences (Hungerland